Coal scam: CBI's probe in Navbharat's case comes under scanner

CBI's investigation in the Coal blocks allocation scam has come under the scanner of a special court which questioned the agency for not taking corrective measures in its supplementary charge sheet about the lacunae noted by another court in a case of Navbharat Power Pvt Ltd. The CBI court wanted to know as to why it has not referred in its supplementary charge sheet the lacunae pointed out by the magisterial court earlier.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar also observed that the investigating officer (IO) of the case was unable to "explain anything" in this regard. The court's observation came while hearing a case in which CBI had earlier filed charge sheet against Navbharat Power Pvt Ltd, its Managing Director and Vice-Chairman Harish Chandra Prasad and its Chairman P Trivikrama Prasad.

It also referred to an order passed by a magisterial court in which Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Gaurav Rao had pulled up the CBI for not properly probing the "crucial aspects" regarding alleged roles of public servants and had directed the IO to conclude the probe by August 30. "....perusal of the record shows that ACMM Gaurav Rao has passed a detailed order dated May 13, 2014 observing about the lacuna in investigation carried out or the care which ought to have been taken in further investigation which admittedly was still being carried out by the investigating agency," the court said.

"However, a perusal of supplementary final report sought to be filed today and also upon inquiry from the IO, I have been unable to find any reference in the said supplementary final report regarding detailed observations made by ACMM in the order dated May 13, 2014. IO is unable to explain anything in this regard," the special judge said and fixed the matter for consideration on September 4.